TWENTY-FIVE

"... And Robin shall restore amends."

Neil recited his last line and hid his face behind his hands, backing away between the closing curtains, while rapturous applause resounded from the audience, the most loving one coming from his friends.

When the actors showed up again to receive the ovation, the spectators soon stood up clapping. The folks on stage bowed, then pushed Neil forward for his personal time in the spotlight. The Poets counted to three, then yelled all together.

"Yaaawp!"

Neil beamed at them and bowed a second time before disappearing behind the heavy fabric.

Still excited, the group made their way out of the theater, chatting enthusiastically about the performance. They had planned to wait for Neil outside, and it took another twenty minutes before he was ready. But he was not alone. His jumped-out-of-nowhere father was with him, pushing his way through the crowd, his son close behind. Charlie cursed under his breath. Goddamned party pooper. He turned his head in search of October's eyes, ready to roll his own and find her support, but she was staring at the scene before her, whey-faced.

As soon as Todd saw his roommate, he began to call his name out loud, soon followed by the others.

"Neil! Neil, wait!"

"I can't, guys" Neil tried to push them away, still following his father as his friends were struggling to approach him in the sea of people. Mr. Keating was the one who managed to grab his student's sleeve and make him turn around on the sidewalk right outside the doorway. The young actor cast a desperate look at his teacher.

"Neil, you have the gift" the man said, and a tiny smile lit up the boy's face. "What a performance! You left even me speechless. You have to stay with..."

"Get in the car" Mr. Perry cut him off, shoving Neil aside, while the rest of the group gathered behind them in confusion. The outraged parent looked at the man in front of him with contempt and rage all over his features, before spitting his next words.

"Keating, you stay away from my son."

The teacher gulped. He watched with a broken expression as the two were about to leave. Charlie let go of October's hand and took a step forward, trying to fix things.

"Neil! Neil! Mr. Perry, c'mon!"

The called-on man ignored him, stomping around the car to enter. Mr. Keating held Charlie back.

"Don't make it any worse than it is" he suggested in a gloomy voice.

Right before Neil sat in the car, October darted forward and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him in despair and slightly swinging back and forth.

"It's okay, Neil, everything will be alright, please, don't you forget that everything will be fine" she blurted out, whispering in his ear, trying to keep her tone calm, but ending in a hardly-restrained frantic voice. A shocked Neil couldn't bring himself to hug her back, but he looked her dead in the eye when she pulled herself away from him.

"Tobie..."

"Don't be afraid, sweetheart" she murmured with watery eyes. She took one of his hands in hers and squeezed it painfully, kissing his knuckles before letting him go. Neil stared at her puzzled for a little while yet, then entered the car and closed the door. He embraced the whole group with his doleful eyes and never tore his gaze off them.

The gang had decided to walk back to the academy, leaving a distraught Keating on the curb alone with his own thoughts. On their way, they had chosen to divert towards the cave, and there they were at the moment, sprawled here and there along with October and Chris, passing some sort of liqueur on, a merry fire crackling in the middle. A tired Cameron had moved along to the dorm.

Charlie seemed unable to cheer October up. She was definitely too torn apart for nothing, and he couldn't understand why. He kept on brushing his hands on her arms and kissing her temple, but she was kind of shut in a soap bubble. The only thing she was repeating over and over was everything will be fine. Not exactly the reaction he would have expected after his confession, he had to guiltily admit – but, given her state, that was not the time to be so self-centered.

"If I ever see Neil's father again, I'll kill him" Todd announced out of the blue. October shot a horrified glance at him. Charlie knitted his brows. He had never seen her like that.

"Sibyl, what's wrong? You've been acting weird since yesterday."

She seemed to become aware of his presence all at once. He watched her swallow, blink and open her mouth to reply, but she had no time for that, since some footsteps were suddenly heard from the outside, along with a manly voice.

"I thought I'd have found you here."

They all perked their heads up, unable to believe their eyes.

"Mr. Keating?"

"Captain!"

"Not a bad way to spend the evening, eh, gentlemen?" the teacher rhetorically asked, while ducking to enter the cave. His pupils fell on October and Chris on his way to the bonfire. "Look at that. Women already swooning."

Charlie and Knox laughed. The man gazed at the ceiling of the cave with nostalgic eyes, caressing the rock with a soft smile, then looked back down and spotted October's expression.

"Hey, why so glum? Neil's performance was a cause for celebration, not this."

October forced a sad smile in response, more similar to a grimace, but Charlie seized the opportunity, hoping to lift her spirits a bit.

"Let's have a meeting in his honor" he proposed. "Captain? Will you lead it?"

Mr. Keating's lips curled.

"Ah, gentlemen, I..."

"Please, Mr. Keating!"

"Come on!"

His students tried to convince him to join in until he gave in, sighing.

"It's been fifteen years..." he stated, generating a collective laugh. He put his hands into his pocket and stared at his feet, as if to remember something. Then he recited by heart, the fierceness in his tone more intense than they had ever heard. "I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. To live deep... To suck out all the marrow of life. Put to rout all that was not life and not..."

The Poets all joined him for the last verse.

"... When I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Five fond smiles flashed in his direction.

"Alright. Who's up first?" he asked then.

"I have something" Todd unexpectedly raised his voice. Charlie's face lit up.

"The thing you've been writing?" he asked, incredulous. Neil told him Todd was writing a poem the day they had snatched Cameron's Chemistry book and started racing around the room playing and laughing. It had to be that.

"Yeah, that thing" the once-shy boy confirmed. Apparently, watching Neil stand out had instilled some new confidence in him.

Keeping the spurt of pride gushing in his chest under control, Mr. Keating took his own seat to enjoy the show. Todd stood up, handing the god of the cave to Meeks and spreading out a crumpled sheet of paper; the bespectacled boy soon grabbed the statue and got close, so as to shed the light from the flame over the battered composition.

"In between the verses, all of you say And still we sleep" Todd instructed, much to his friends' confusion. Then he took a deep breath and started reciting in a lulling tone.

"We are dreaming of tomorrow and tomorrow isn't coming. We're dreaming of the glory that we don't really want. We're dreaming of a new day when the new day is there already. And we're running from the battle when it's one that must be fought."

He gestured towards them, so that they got their cue.

"... And still we sleep."

Todd folded up the paper sheet and went on by heart, looking all of them in the eye.

"We're listening for the calling, but never really heeding. Hoping for the future when the future's only plans. Dreaming of the wisdom that we're dodging daily. Praying for a savior when salvation's in our hands."

He signaled again.

"... And still we sleep."

Then he closed it, the calm of his voice inversely proportional to the hustle of his pulse.

"And still we dream, and still we fear, and still we pray, and still we sleep."

The atmosphere froze for a second, then Charlie burst into applause and rose to his feet, followed by the rest of the group. October brushed away a tear, ensuring nobody was watching her, before standing up as well.

"I hold in my hands a crystal ball" Mr. Keating jested with a spherical block of ice in his hands, pretending to predict his disciple's future. "I see for Todd Anderson great things."

"Yes!" Charlie bellowed in triumph, then he reached out to enfold and gently squeeze the girl at his side, who remained just as numb. His smile lost a bit of its shine. Unaware of the oddity, the Poets kept on whooping with delight; meanwhile, their teacher stood up and headed for Todd to engulf him in a hearty hug.

"Getting better, huh?" the boy asked with just an echo of his usual bashfulness, while a drop of pride was clearly perceivable in his words.

"Yes, just a touch" the teacher joked. Charlie let go of October's shoulder to pat on Todd's. The latter beamed at his friends, then at his teacher.

"You can burn that now" the man suggested. Todd smiled and ripped the piece of paper into two parts, handing one to Mr. Keating, then the two of them let the pieces float to the flames. The Poets broke into some enthusiastic wild chant while observing the impalpable glowing ashes soar in the air, as if they could incite the fire to destroy the paper faster. In the midst of that excitement, only one person kept her eyelids desperately down to shield the sight of the dying poem.

"You girls have never had so much fun" Todd quipped, eliciting loud laughter from Chris. October opened her eyes wide, feeling an obligation to join in, and gave a half-smile.

"I always have fun with you, guys. But I have to say I'm very impressed, Todd. You're beyond words" she sincerely complimented in a small voice, prompting a nice shade of red to fan out over his face.

"Well, I'll pick up my Jew's harp" Pitts chimed in, raising an imaginary instrument to his mouth and mimicking the act of playing it with his other hand.

They all laughed and began goofing around, too taken with their fun to see the lone figure looming near the entrance. In the blink of an eye, the shadows had swallowed it.

A/N: Hello guys! I hope you had a wonderful holiday :)

I'm sorry if this chapter is not as good as it should have been: unfortunately, I wrote small pieces of it in different moments, and I had to sew them all together, but the result is not that great :D But I tried over and over, apparently it just doesn't want to come out better than this! The same goes for the next one, I'll try to work on it for a little while yet.

Regarding the chapter itself, I know Neil enters the car straight away, but I needed the scene to be this way for plot needs. It's the same reason why I put a gap between Knox's performance in Chris' school and Neil's play (as you know, in the movie the two events occur during the same day).

The scene in the cave comes loosely from one of the raw deleted scenes you can find online. It's almost the same, except for October's presence of course. I also adapted and cut out some lines, and I added some action to the part where they rip up the paper sheet, since it's not perfectly visible in the video. I'll take this opportunity to thank the always great xxJustBeingMexx for her help with the transcription :)

I'll leave you with a question: who's the mysterious figure? Come on, bets are accepted, but I'm sure you know :p

Happy New Year!